Friday, February 24, 2017

The Threat to the First Amendment

There’s a reason why it was the FIRST amendment

The Trump administration sent into exile at least four mainstream news organizations earlier today. Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a briefing at the White House where he blocked The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico from attending.

In doing so, the administration of the President of the United States has crossed a line. Limiting the press is the first order of business for anyone who seeks to rule unilaterally, without opposition and with total power.

Up until now, most have paid little or no attention to those who had been comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. But today’s actions were terrifying. A free press is as crucial to our democracy as are elections themselves. Without it, voters would lack the information they need to make the informed decisions that our founding fathers entrusted to them.

The truth is, there are some understandable reasons why Donald Trump was elected President. The political elite ignored the pain and plight of a huge swath of the American people for far too long. Those voters felt they had no voice in Washington. They felt helpless and they took action the best way they could in the last election.

But the hard fact is, their solution is turning out to be far worse than the problem. It threatens the very existence of our country and the Donald Trump administration is leading the way. Our founding fathers’ vision has endured two-and-a-half centuries primarily because a free and unfettered press has always been absolutely sacred to us.

Freedom is fragile. Democracy is complicated. There are many factors that contribute to our nation’s sustainability and one of the most important ones is a press that is free of government censorship.

The mainstream media needs to be adamant in their reaction to today’s move. They must understand that it may have been CNN today but could it be NBC tomorrow, the Washington Post on Sunday and the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

The one bright spot of the day was that two news organizations, Time Magazine and AP, boycotted the briefing in solidarity with their fellow members of the press. But that simply is not enough. All of the other mainstream media outlets must do the same.

The press itself has a critical obligation to fight this battle and fight it hard. If they don’t, they are derelict in their duty and they become complacent in Donald Trump’s attempt to silence them. Their reaction must be immediate, unified and thundering loud. In no uncertain terms, the message from the press to the administration must be,“ban one, ban us all.”